George W. Bush receives Bin Laden memo: Aug. 6, 2001

On this day in 2001, President George W. Bush, while vacationing at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, received a classified intelligence memo titled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”

The memo said that “clandestine, foreign government and media reports indicate [Osama] bin Laden since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the U.S. Bin Laden implied in U.S. television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and ‘bring the fighting to America.’”

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It noted that “after U.S. strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, bin Laden told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a [deleted text] service. An Egyptian Islamic Jihad operative told [deleted text] service at the same time that bin Laden was planning to exploit the operative’s access to the U.S. to mount a terrorist strike.”

Terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, crashing two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, in New York City, killing all on board and thousands more in the buildings. Both buildings collapsed, destroying nearby structures and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon, in Arlington, Va. The fourth jet, redirected to Washington, crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pa., after some passengers and crew members attempted to retake control of the plane.